Philosophy and Its History: Issues in Philosophical Historiography (review)

478 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 31:3 JULY ~993 cal education that tragedy played in the Greek polls of the fifth century s.c., three essays on Sebba's mentor Eric Voegelin, and three essays concerned with problems in the historiography of philosophy. Of particular interest in the latter is Sebba's discussion of the differences and relationship between "doctrinal analysis" and historical investigation in writing history of philosophy. I suspect that the distinction he draws may well seem simplistic to many practitioners of the craft, and too abstracted from the actual doing of history of philosophy, although Sebba does not hesitate to elucidate his claims with his own analysis of the Malebranche-Foucher debate. In Part III, "The Ordering Power of the Imagination," Sebba turns to human creativity and the work of art, with a particular emphasis on poetry 9 Part IV, "Ideas and Cultural Style," consists in two essays on the ideas informing the styles of two cultural periods: the Baroque and the post-Enlightenment 9 The volume concludes with a "Coda" on interdisciplinary studies and Sebba's reflections on professionalism and specialization in academia. The editors (and publisher) of the book are to be commended for making these essays--many of which were published in out-of-the-way places--readily accessible in a single source. Sebba's writings are always challenging and, in several instances, very timely (for example, his discussion of the American myth of the presidency in the essay on Greek tragedy). One may not always agree with him, but reading these essays will never leave one unstimulated. STEVEN NADLER University of Wisconsin, Madison Jorge j. E. Gracia. Philosophyand Its HistmT: Issuesin PhilosophicalHistoriography. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991. Pp. xxi + 387 . Cloth, $59.5 o. Paper, $19.95. Gracia argues that Kant's criticism of the mainstream divided philosophy into a Continental poetic tradition and an Anglo-American critical tradition. He argues that "the history of philosophy and philosophical historiography should be able to provide the common ground between poets and critics that will allow them to restore some measure of dialogue and communication" (331). That is because "philosophical historiography identifies certain fundamental issues whose solution can become a common aim for both poets and critics [and] provides us with certain methodological principles" (331) that should be acceptable to both traditions. Gracia's claim to provide this bridge stems from his basic thesis that "the history of philosophy must be done philosophically and that when done in that way the history of philosophy is intrinsically helpful to the philosopher" (33u). He does not claim that one must know and do the history of philosophy to be able to do philosophy, but he does argue that one must do philosophy in doing the history of philosophy. That is, descriptive, interpretive, and evaluative approaches cannot be separated in doing the history of philosophy. In characterizing the development of philosophical ideas, one must see and interpret them as solutions to specific problems, and one must be able to evaluate arguments and conclusions philosophically to understand philosophical texts. BOOK REVIEWS 479 Gracia provides excellent characterizations of thirteen approaches to the history of philosophy, none of which is adequate alone, but some of which provide aspects combined in what he calls a "framework approach" that he prescribes as adequate for doing the history of philosophy philosophically, and as acceptable to both poets and critics. Thus he rejects nonphilosophical approaches that account for past philosophical ideas in cultural, psychological, and ideological terms; he rejects Golden Age nostalgic , romantic, scholarly, and various doxographical philosophical approaches that put too much emphasis on description to the detriment of interpretation and evaluation; and he rejects the polemical approaches of apologists, literary critics, dilettantes, idealists , problematicists, and eschatologists. Gracia's framework approach involves "development of a conceptual framework founded on an analysis of the problems and ideas under investigation.., to separate the different issues involved in the problems and ideas in question, the possible answers to those issues, the various ideas that play a role in them and, finally, the types of arguments and objections that can be used both in support of or against the possible solutions to the...